We are a Tolkien fan club and online (mostly) gaming group.
The Valar Guild came into existence as it is today on October 4, 1997. It is the vision of Eru-(Valar), set into motion by Manwe-(Valar), and continued with much expansion by the Council of Mahanaxar and regular members. It was originally intended as a haven for Diablo 1 players, then expanded to other games and the Tolkien Site. The vision is to provide a place for literate, polite gamers who have read at least the Lord of the Rings for common ground, and want to actually play a game. Courtesy is also to be given to the "enemy", as in pvp or sparring.
We still have some of the original members and have not yet missed holding a Sunday meeting.
Our website includes Gaming and Tolkien. "Tolkien" includes all of JRRT's and Christopher's works including
We have meetings in Discord every Sunday at 5 P.M. Eastern time (which is also called Valar time).
We operate a multi-part Tolkien Site using personal, original material instead of Wiki group-think. Articles need references from the books. Speculation is a different section from articles. Join in writing our articles, stories, poetry, humor, art, languages, music, and book reviews write away; if accepted, you become a Tolkien-only member with the (T) Honor sign after your credit name. Gaming members often also contribute.
We have an ongoing group story on the Forum. Many of the other forum duties shifted to Discord.
We have a Sunday 5pm Eastern Discord meeting to update the group on gaming and for a Tolkien chat. We also use Discord for general chat and for gaming coordination. Meeting transcript links (and quick summary) are posted on our News page.
We game, mostly online. LotRO is the current main game of many.
We have two types of membership: a "Tolkien-only" that adds to the Tolkien Site but doesn't game, and a "Full Member" that may do Tolkien-only plus plus gaming. We also have associates, rather like Elf-friends, called "Guild-friends". All of these are welcome in our Discord and our Discord weekly meetings that include gaming news and a Tolkien chat.
Valar Guild "Full Members" are Tolkien fans who have read at least Lord of the Rings, passed a simple, live entry test to both prove it (understanding that the movies can overwrite memory, and we let the test be re-taken as often as a tester may be located) and courtesy. At the same time, the interested person has the chance to ask questions. Meanwhile, the person can become familiar with at least one current member from the beginning, and gain immediate Full Membership afterwards. Full Members are folk who like to play online games in an honorable and courteous manner.
Members may play any online game. Some of these currently being played by the membership are listed on our Games Site. Contact Eonwe to update your gaming info.
Our currently most-played game is Lord of the Rings Online, with its focus on Middle-earth of the books and ability to "live" there, chatting, sharing, and grouping with like-minded guild-members. Landroval server is our main, with kin branches currently also on Crickhollow, Mordor, Treebeard, and Angmar servers.
Another MMO is World of Warcraft, with an Alliance branch on Lothar server and Horde on Uldaman server. Since Members tend to play more than one game and shift around, we try to find each other using Discord and by updating the Games Site at least yearly with our preferred games.
Gaming membership in other guilds, clans, kinships etc, is acceptable, as long as the shared membership is not used for harm against the Valar Guild or the other.
Each gaming Member earns and owns his own (background) Tolkien character name, including all versions of the primary name, to interact with the others in ready-made relationships, yet in a friendly manner even if one is an Elf and the other an Orc. (Cheery ribbing may occur.) The name helps in recognition across all our platforms for gaming, writing, art, the Forum, and Sunday Discord meetings. Maiar and Valar honor names have to be earned after earning Full Membership. Gaming character names do not have to be related to that background name, but it helps not to use someone else's Member name for a character name; we try to avoid confusion by putting the background name in the gaming note.
See the Contact page on this website for general and specific requests.
Your general contact for anything concerning the Valar Guild or Tolkien is Varda ( NOSPAMvarda.elentari(AT)gmail ), Discord, or as Fainan (main of many) on LotRO. We also have a Contact page for specifics. We have a Forum.
Can't reach an officer? Member contact information is on the Membership page, although emails (slightly scrambled) and all else have an opt-out or specially-made email account (spam prevention for your normal account). A member may include that person's personal site (or not) on the Membership page. Members, please do not give more than your country and state for this page on location. top